Mr. 4's special day

This morning Mr. 4 woke up to many happy birthday wishes, including a brother in a pirate hat with a special handmade card.  And a special treasure hunt designed by Daddy which everyone was really into.






It was hard to convince him to actually get ready for school but we made it on time and he happily ran onto the playground with his buddies.  Four year olds are not sad when mom drops them off at school!  I returned an hour later with cupcakes for Mr. 4 and his friends as well as a book for Mr. 4 to read and a book for me to read.  Mr. 4 read "That's How" and I read "Don't Squish the Sasquatch" - both chosen by Mr. 4.



We tried to have a low key afternoon but I don't think our house knows how to be low key.  So after a crazy afternoon, our friends came for a party in Mr. 4's honor.  We made T-shirts, ate homemade pizza, went on a treasure hunt (designed by Mr. 10), ate pirate cake, and had some play time.  It was a great night to celebrate Mr. 4.

Mr. 8's experiment

Watch "Mr. 8's experiment" on YouTube

Mr. 3 grooving

Watch "Mr. 3 dancing" on YouTube

On the Freedom Trail with Grandma and Grandpa

Spring

Now that it's finally warming up, we're back to spending as much time at the park as we can.  The older boys disappear to the hl or off on their scooters but Mr. 3 has been hanging with us on the playground sometimes.  Mr. 1 typically heads right for the bridge and sits, waiting for Mr. 3 to jump on the bridge and bounce him.  He'll even try to bounce himself if Mr. 3 is too slow in joining him. 

And Mr. 1 never misses a chance to carry a stick - actually one more stick than he can carry which is very frustrating.  But certainly not so frustrating that you carry fewer sticks.

Quotes of the day

Mr. 3 while eating oranges: "Oh yeah baby, I love oranges!"

Mr. 10 was putting away dishes and I was singing along to Crazy For You.  He very deliberately rolled his eyes at me.  I told him he did it quite well.   And his reply: "Well, I've been practicing."

Hanging out in the back of the bleachers

Probably discussing their hopeless parents.

The IKEA pilgrimage

About once a year our IKEA list becomes large enough to merit the trip down to Stoughton.  It's really only a 45 minute drive but it always turns into a full day expedition so we like to make the most of it.  We had tried to go the week before but a broken windshield wiper ended up taking an hour to repair (including many different trips to the basement for tools and then multiple stops for parts - it was not our finest moment) and by the time we were getting on the road we realized we'd never make it back in time for naps and ice skating lessons.

So the Saturday before Easter we left home bright and early for breakfast in the IKEA restaurant.  Fortified,  we dropped Mr. 8 and Mr. 3 off at Smalworld (Mr. 10 is too tall and it was a hard realization as he got dragged along with us while his brothers played).  We ended up with 3 bookcases, a dresser, a storage chest, a desk and drawer unit for the desk, a futon cover, a mattress, and all the various odds and ends that always manage to sneak into the cart.  Mr. 1 slept the whole way home which was all the nap he ended up with.  We arrived home with a car packed full of stuff and ice skating lessons in 20 minutes so we quickly unloaded what we could and got everyone strapped back into the car in snow gear for ice skating.  The assembly went on much too late into the night and continued throughout the next few days.

We now have more book space (that is pretty much filled with the books we already owned) and Mr. 10 has his own workstation across from Mr. 8's workbench.  Mr. 3 and Mr. 1 have their own dresser and their clothes are in one place which is rather nice.  And Mr. 8 has a much more comfortable mattress (he tried to talk us into the $800 mattress but we talked him down to a comfortable but more affordable option.  And we only spent $50 more than I had calculated.  Hopefully this will hold us until next year!